POLICE BOARD COULD OPEN COMMUNICATIONS

A suggestion to create a police advisory board in the wake of a near-riot on Good Hope Street has received considerable positive response, but now there appear to be issues swirling around this topic that are likely to cause misunderstandings.

This is not the time for a quarrel. This is the time for elected and appointed officials in positions of authority to provide leadership by stepping up to the challenge.

Appointed officials like Police Chief Rick Hetzel have expressed an earnest willingness to see the advisory board created. He has good reasons for not only favoring the idea, but also for having suggested it more than a year ago -- long before the melee on Good Hope that left police officers injured and several residents under arrest.

But some elected officials, including a couple of council members, have expressed reservations about the advisory board, leaving the impression that there is something wrong with the idea.

Those who have raised a red flag about the need for an elected advisory board are absolutely correct and already know the answer to their own questions: We don't need an election to create a police advisory board.

But Cape Girardeau does need avenues of communication. The more good, accurate information that can be shared about instances such as the Good Hope melee, the better. Citizens who have concerns, questions and suggestions about what happened on Good Hope are entitled to access to the best information possible. They are entitled to a system that ensures their thoughts will be given official sanction by police and other city officials.

The city is full of advisory boards for the airport, parks, tourism -- you name it. These boards have been valuable tools in providing city residents with outstanding municipal services.

Now comes the idea for a police advisory board. No one is looking for a way to usurp the oversight of the City Council. No one is looking for hiring and firing authority for a group of citizens -- a morass the Convention and Visitors Bureau's advisory board came dangerously close to foundering in several months ago.

What is needed is a group of citizens who can forge a bond of trust between the police department and those in the community who have concerns about the way law enforcement is being handled. Clearly, there is a gulf in understanding right now.

A properly constituted police advisory board could cross that gulf and provide communication to and on behalf of the entire community. That's a process worth the effort.